Egypt Says It May Shut Entrances to Camps

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Women who support Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, demonstrated Friday in the Nasr City section of Cairo. Scores have died in recent clashes.CreditCreditNarciso Contreras for The New York Times

CAIRO — The Egyptian government threatened on Saturday to block the entrances to a large protest camp where supporters of Mohamed Morsi, the ousted president, have been calling for his return as the Obama administration sought help from Persian Gulf nations to help end Egypt’s political crisis.

The Egyptian authorities have grown increasingly critical of sit-ins by Mr. Morsi’s supporters and have signaled that moves by security forces to break them up could be imminent. The country has been deeply divided since the army ousted Mr. Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt’s first democratically elected president, on July 3 after protests by millions who were unhappy with his rule.

The army has installed an interim government, but staunch opposition by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political movement that brought Mr. Morsi to power, has raised serious questions about whether the latest transition will result in an inclusive political system.

Clashes between security forces and Mr. Morsi’s supporters have left scores of people dead over the last month, and many fear that any move to break up the protests could trigger new rounds of violence.

The United States deputy secretary of state, William J. Burns, arrived here Friday to discuss the conflict with officials, and Secretary of State John Kerry conferred in London with Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates.

“We will work very, very hard together and with others in order to bring parties together to find a peaceful resolution that grows the democracy and respects the rights of everybody,” Mr. Kerry said.

Appearing to temper comments he made Thursday that Egypt’s military was “restoring democracy,” Mr. Kerry called on both sides to work toward compromise.

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Demonstrators ran from a fire during clashes with the police in Giza, south of Cairo. Security forces fired tear gas at protesters.CreditFayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“The temporary government has a responsibility with respect to demonstrators, to give them the space to be able to demonstrate in peace,” he said. “But at the same time the demonstrators have the responsibility not to stop everything from proceeding in Egypt.”

Over the last week, Mr. Kerry has been in touch with top officials from Persian Gulf countries with strong ties in Egypt, including leaders from the United Arab Emirates, which has offered generous financial aid to the interim government, and Qatar, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muslim Brotherhood officials have publicly shown no willingness to reconsider their demand that Mr. Morsi be reinstated and have criticized the United States for not defining the military’s intervention into politics as a coup, which could prompt the cutoff of $1.5 billion in annual American aid.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Gehad el-Haddad, accused the United States of being complicit in Mr. Morsi’s ouster.

“The American people should stand against an administration that is corrupting their values in supporting tyranny and dictatorship,” he said in a statement.

Egyptian state television announced that security forces planned to surround and block access to the main pro-Morsi sit-in in Nasr City, a neighborhood in Cairo, and Mr. Morsi’s supporters clashed with the police near a complex of television studios elsewhere.

Security officials said that four police officers had been wounded when Muslim Brotherhood members tried to storm the area. Some 30 protesters were arrested, they said.

Many Egyptians have lost patience with the pro-Morsi sit-ins, which have blocked streets and snarled traffic, while officials have accused the Brotherhood of collecting weapons in preparation for clashes.

Ben Hubbard reported from Cairo, and Michael R. Gordon from London.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Egypt Says It May Shut Entrances To Camps. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe